Today, people routinely separate whole blood by centrifugation into its various therapeutic components, such as red blood cells, platelets, and plasma.
Conventional blood processing methods use durable centrifuge equipment in association with single use, sterile processing systems, typically made of plastic. The operator loads the disposable systems upon the centrifuge before processing and removes them afterwards.
The centrifuge chamber of many conventional centrifuges takes the form of a relatively narrow arcuate slot or channel. Loading a flexible processing container inside the slot prior to use, and unloading the container from the slot after use, can often be time consuming and tedious.